Second Terran Imperium
Liem’s Star, Hemera Sector, Sagittarius Arm
(Second Imperium-Musashi border/Xeno-Barbarian Front)======================================================================================================================================
The Hemera Sector. A region of space once populated by many billions and then abandoned after the fall, much of its populace fled to safer worlds in the face of foreign invaders. Within the sector, the system of Liem’s Star holds a world, Liem IV. With fertile grasslands and mineral rich mountain ranges, it has always drawn colonists back to Hemera Sector. Repopulated by Terran imperials in the last century, coming to rebuild their lives back up from the brink.
Warlord Gobbushulk The Despoiler smiled as far as his rotund, alien mucus-covered face could allow. With glee he prepared, for today was the day the great Oghkeenians took it all away from the Terrans once more. He stared at the viewscreen, the image of Liem IV slowly rotating. It was a beautiful world, with vibrant greens and clear blues stretching across its surface, barely marked by the small lights of urban infrastructure.
He, his small splinter fleet of 110 vessels of the Great Host and some 700,000 warriors now were held in high orbit over Liem IV. The defending fleet of merely 18 ships had already fled. With no great struggle for control of the planets orbit, it seemed that the reaping could begin.
“General” Gobbushulk spat, now face to face with an Archani on the screen.
“I have given you your chance at the Terrans. This world is ripe for reaping and vulnerable like all your sickly mammalian young. If you wish to take part in stealing glory out from Yugsluggoths grasp… do not fail me”. Gobbushulk warned, referring to his arch-rival Yugsluggoth the Conqueror, who even now carved a path towards his prize of the Terran homeworld itself.
“You will have your glory, the human world will be ours by the new morning” The general promised. Gobbushulk had the screen of the Archani’s disgusting Mammalian face removed, leaving the vista of Liem IV to look upon instead.
The assault would soon begin Gobbushulk thought, and the path to Musashi and the rest of the Perseus Arm would be opened, opened for reaping.
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City of Liemville, Liem IV
“Please move in a calm and organised fashion” A monotone, digital voice spoke, the feminine machine voice carried across the street as thousands of panicking civilians formed a slowly moving mass of bodies. Each shoving each other forward, moaning and yelling as they tried to press forward to safety.
The city was being abandoned. Hovercraft had emptied from the skies completely, having left for Liem IV’s single super-bunker or spaceport hours ago. Land vehicles dotted the streets, abandoned. The sky was burning, with only a few bursts of orbital bombardment having lit the entire opposite side of the city on fire. directly behind the fleeing civilians great plumes of smoke were growing, soon to obscure the sun.
“Follow instructions of your local civil guardsmen and refrain from straying from the designated safe zones. Report to the civil guardsmen headquarters for inquiries” the monotone voice continued, cheerfully ignoring the chaos occurring.
A line of armoured vehicles passed through the tide of fleeing civilians. Hovering 72Ts* pushed through the crowd, forcing them to further condense to the sides or even duck under the floating IFVs. They were heading for the great plumes of smoke, a one-way path to certain death which and all the impromptu conscripts inside or piled ontop the 72Ts knew was coming.
“Caution, the mass-transit system is currently inoperable. Please speak with your local civil guardsmen at the civil guardsmen headquarters for alternative directions towards…” the voice stopped for a moment as it switched to the voice of an awkward male bureaucrat,
“--Superbunker B331A--” before abruptly ending.
“Can someone please just shoot that thing? It’s not helping”. One of the conscripts tried to shout over the background noise of the crowd. The other conscripts ontop of the 72T looked over to the speaker.
“Caution, the civil guardsmen headquarters is currently on fire and as such is advised to avoid taking shelter there. Please speak with your local civil guardsmen at the civil guardsmen headquarters for alternative directions…”
The conscripts were silent, until one of them, an old man with a beard begun laughing. Despite the dire situation, the nearing apocalypse for this world and all the conscripts terror, the rest begun laughing too.
Perhaps they even laughed too hard, as to compensate.
“Men, the rally point is up ahead, prepare yourselves. Jonas, get me heavy guns on that apartment on the corner of the street” a voice on the comlink spoke, their commander.
“Alright, you heard it. Men, stop your jokes and get into positions. Go, go!”. The conscripts riding the IFV’s jumped off onto the ground. Jonas, the one who had made the comment before was carrying a heavy pulse repeater** with another man. They, along with five young conscripts and the old man went off to the sidewalk, heading for the apartment building.
The 72T’s continued floating down the street, the running civilians thinning out and clearing, replaced by conscripts huddling behind building corners, alley ways and short concrete walls, others advancing forward in lines, heading deeper into the city centre.
Arriving at and entering the apartment building, the squad passed yet more conscripts gathering within, some roughly adult-aged civilians who had been grabbed and given guns, some younger as well. The apartment building was messy, objects scattered across the ground from people ransacking the building. Medical equipment left in the corners and bloodied stretchers from people trying to treat heavily burned survivors of the bombardment. What appeared to be a corpse was still lying in the corner.
To think they haven’t even arrived yet Janas thought.
They ran up the flight of stairs until reaching the roof so they could set up the heavy repeater. When they arrived at the roof however, the stopped. More conscripts, but this time aliens.
“Fuckin xenos” one of the young 19-something kids in Jonas’ squad muttered. The xenos turned to face them. Four of them, three knee-high fluffballs*** and a Hexi. Hope of their survival chances rose dramatically upon noticing the Hexi, then summarily dropping through the floor upon realising the Hexi was wearing what appeared to be a shirt and trousers.
“We’re fucked” Jonas said in agreement.
“Salutations human, I am glad you arrived. We have no idea what to do” the Hexi spoke, speaking towards Jonas. It was holding an old gauss long-rifle like a submachine gun, Janas didn’t even bother trying to correct this.
“Yeah yeah, salutations, glory to the Imperium and such” Jonas said quickly, glancing to the sky knowing that any minute now the xeno-barbarians were going to be dropping down on them. “Get going! Come on, positions damn it!” He barked.
The old man, Audrey, was already lying down with a bi-pod out, facing his gauss long-rifle out towards the city plaza that their overwatch position now covered. They had finished setting up the heavy repeater.
Movement stopped. They were in position, and so were everyone else across the street. Eerie silence, except the distant sounds of fleeing civilians, and one of the fluffballs coughing repeatedly.
“This is command, relaying message from the general” the comm-link came to life, everyone hearing the voice.
“This is Major-General Regius Crawford of the 14th Liem Defence Division. The city of Liemville is to be the xeno-barbarians primary target. Our task is to hold this position so that at least half the civilians can reach safety before the city falls. Everyone here is a citizen of the Imperium, everyone here is a Liemsian native. I ask each of you in the name of this world and for the sake of your families to hold the line and persevere. One hour. I ask for you to give me one hour. I do not care how you do it. I do not care what you think of it. It is victory or death, there is no alternative. Glory to the Imperium”.
The voice cut off then and the conscripts returned to waiting. It wasn’t a particularly uplifting speech, but each of them understood the message. It was fight or die. Or in their case, just die, but hey, it served a greater purpose. And… isn’t that what being a Terran is all about? For 200 years it had been that way, die so the species could live, die so the imperium went on, die so that your little brother could get to that bunker alive.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Pz1AJaTJI&nohtml5=False&ab_channel=MovieTubE (visual for reference)
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They looked up in the sky just as the AA started firing, shooting at landing craft and drop ships they couldn’t yet see through the smoke. Flashes of particle beams and missiles firing in arcs through the sky. This was it. Jonas and the others braced themselves, if anyone talked, no one heard over the deafening roar of the weapons firing into the sky. The invaders landing ships were now visible to eyesight, old imperial cargo-freighters and strange alien ships the size of skyscrapers. much larger than what propaganda often accredited the xeno-barbarians. Jonas looked around and saw fear on everyone’s faces, Jonas even saw one of the fluffball xenos grab what appeared to be a cross, one of those icons to the old Terran gods of Sol.
“Just one hour, that’s all” Jonas reminded himself.
The building shook, the entire city shook. Jonas and the others fell to the ground.
“Vandals in Section A3, A4. Repeat, Section A3, A4, confirmed Vandals. Interdict.” the comm-link combat chatter had started. The xeno-barbarians were planetside.
They could hear gunfire in the distance. The thunder strike-like blasts of heavy railguns firing. The zaps of beams and particle bursts. The building continued to tremble as more landing craft landed or crashed into the city. Finally, a target appeared. A single… thing appeared. It walked sloppily out into the open, one arm broken and its body on fire likely from a rough landing.
BANG.Audrey’s gauss long-rifle fired, a ear-splitting thunderclap preceding a magnetically-accelerated slug of metal tearing directly through the xeno’s chest, causing its upper chest to explode in black-blooded mist.
As its body fell dead, there was a slight cheer among the conscripts. Their cheer was deafened out by the arrival of alien howling and war horns, and not so far away, an enraged scream in some alien tongue.
“Here they come!” one of the conscripts down on the street shouted, just as particle beams, plasma bolts and accelerated slugs returned fire on them, the shots seemingly coming from both the street and buildings on the opposite side.
“The buildings defences have fallen already?!” The kid shouted as they all ducked low on the roof to avoid particles and slugs flying over their heads. Janos didn’t try to think too hard on that and focused on not dying instead. Pushing up against the low wall acting as a fence for the roof of the building, Jonas took a pulse rifle* off his back, having abandoned the heavy repeater due to snipers that would blast their heads off if they even slightly got up.
They were mostly firing their guns over their heads, firing blind in the enemy's general direction, hoping to hit something or at least create suppressive fire. From the sounds, flashes of light and pieces of debris flying around, the enemy was firing on them much in the same way.
Ten minutes had passed and this stalemate continued. Only fifty minutes to go, we can do it Janus thought. That stalemate would have continued too, if the street hadn’t vanished in an explosion of plasma.
“Artillery!” Jonas shouted too late, a second and third plasma-shell**** hitting the neighbouring building, obliterating the upper levels and causing conscripts to come running out on fire or literally melting, then being cut to ribbons by passing particle bursts.
“Fuck, fuck” The kid was yelling now in pain, having lost a finger to a particle burst that went straight through it.
Jonas returned fire in futility. He eyed the heavy repeater standing still on its tripod. The other conscript on the other side was eyeing it as well. Another goddamn xeno war horn was blaring off in the distance, followed by a warcry.
“Idiots on the buildings, fire back you stupid fucks!” one of the other sergeants screamed into the comm-link, likely somewhere on the street, hiding behind the rubble that used to be low walls, street corners and road blocks.
The warcry continued as the enemies were rushing forward. They were charging. Jonas and the other conscripts had to stick their heads out and fire back properly if they were going to stop them.
So they stuck their heads out, and in that moment they saw a mass of charging humans, naked except for steel collars around their necks and some with bombs around their chests, others firing wildly as they charged.
Had it been any other battle with any better odds, they may have hesitated, but they fired without mercy here, shooting as many of them as they could before the enemies in the buildings fired on them again, this time hitting three of the conscripts that had already been in the building, one of his squad mates and the Hexie, losing its head and upper chest, being far too tall to not hit. The last one caused an explosion of gore as purple blood splattered across the roof and their armour.
Even with sacrificing cover for better aim, not much came of it. Being conscripts, their aim was pretty terrible to begin with, and the charging human slaves were very fast. The human slaves quickly flooded into their area of control, engaging the defenders in melee using clubs, knives and bayonets. Upon death, they exploded.
The defenders were being overwhelmed, Jonas could see where this was heading, as could the others. After the Hexi exploded, most of the conscripts had returned to hugging the ground, another had pissed himself and was now cowering in the corner. Audrey was frozen still behind the wall, his rifle destroyed by an enemy sniper that had just missed him. The heavy repeater still unused…
“Vandals in section A4, B1, B2. Alert, B1 and B2 compromised. Interdict” the comm-link chatter said, alerting them to the fact they were being encircled.
“Gah! I’ve had enough” the conscript opposite of Jonas yelled, scrambled back up and took hold of the heavy repeater just before he was about to do the same thing. The conscript yelled a warcry of his own as he started up the repeater, firing hundreds of bursts per second, for three seconds until also exploding in gore as three snipers shot him at once.
“This isn’t working, we gotta get out here!” The kid yelled before crawling to the door. Jonas thought about yelling at him for being a coward, but then realised he was right. There was no way in hell they could use this point as a firing position. The heavy repeater was useless and Audrey’s long-rifle sniper was destroyed. If they got up, they’d just die.
They can’t die just yet.
“Alright, we have to get out out of here, go!” Jonas ordered, rolling his body towards the door, finally stepping up once inside. The others were following suit. Jonas ran down the steps just in time to see hands and a body hauling itself through the window. Quietly, Jonas brought his gun up and looked down its sights.
“I think I see how you guys took out the other guys building so fast, dog-breath” He spoke, getting the attention of the Archani saboteur just as he blew its head off with a short burst from his gun.
It's a good thing the target was half-leaning over the window, or I’d probably have missed he thought.
“We are like Confederates in a orbital bombardment***** here, we have to get out now” Janos said, before collecting the remaining survivors from the building and retreating out of the back entrance of the building.
There was thirteen of them left, including three from his own squad (The kid, Audrey and himself) as well as one of the Fluffball xenos. They were running now, moving down the alleyway between buildings, staying away from the streets. The street was mostly lost, with Archani and human slave-soldiers seemingly eating the dead conscripts. The IFV’s burning, gaping plasma-caused holes gutting them entirely.
Moving down the alleyways, they found pieces of dead conscripts, body parts and gore mostly. Only a few of them were actually killed by what appeared to be gunfire. They heard gunfire behind them and screams followed by alien howls. They were being chased.
Each of them were terrified. So much so that no one complained, or even said anything. They moved in horrified silence, fearing that even the slightest of noises would send waves of enemies on them.
They moved into an abandoned street, cratered by plasma rounds and covered in more dead conscripts, mixed in with even more dead slaves and a few dead Archani. Fires were burning across the buildings and smoke and dust covered the street, obscuring vision much further than directly in front of them.
Just before they could move into the next alleyway however, a child walked out.
A girl in a tattered, dust-coated green dress. She walked slowly out of the opposite alleyway, through the smoke, towards them. They all stopped, but Audrey completely froze.
“Siri?” The old man asked, an expression of incomprehension and shock. Janos however had a different thought running through his mind as the old man reacted to what appeared to be his granddaughter who had left for the bunker already. More children were walking out of the smoke now, each of them similarly coated in dust, but with blood on their fingers and clothing.
The conscripts slowly stepped back, the children forming a rough semi-circle formation around them, walking closer.
“Just an hour, just an hour… only have to hold on for an hour” Janos muttered to himself, still walking backwards. The child, Siri moved closer to the immobile Audrey, her face completely blank.
Janos looked back behind him.
If I can run the other way fast enough.. I’m not going to die like thisHe looked at the time on the holographic clock-band around his arm. Only 37 minutes had passed since the enemy landed.
I can’t die yet.
The others had seemingly given up, and were either just sitting there or slumping down against the wall as the children started to transform their bodies, clawed and teethed appendages and mouths appearing on them, though still retaining remnants of their child-like forms. Audrey was still standing still, now behind the semi-circle of children.
One of the children looked suspiciously like Janos’ brother, at least before three tentacles erupted from his mouth and neck and entire body shifting, losing the childlike form and morphing into what appeared to be a dog. It was slowly moving towards him, now the only one moving back far enough to move into the alleyway again.
Everything is fine, it's just a coincidence. They can’t have got to the bunker that quickly, just an hour… Janos thoughts replayed.
As Janos prepared to flee, raising his gun. As the dog-form xeno moved to chase him down, Audrey looked down, saw his granddaughter one last time and then closed his eyes.
The thing, the thing that showed Siri’s face looked back up and smiled, opening her arms out wide as her face started splitting open.
“Huuuummmmaaaaaaannnnnnnnn………. Hug?”--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* = See Army information
** = Rapid-firing tripod-mounted heavy machine-gun that fires particle bursts
*** = Xarz, small cat-like xeno, known colloquially as the slur "fluffballs"
**** = Physical shell that detonates plasma explosives upon impact on target. Used for greater range.
***** = A Terran saying that essentially is the same as "Like fish in a barrel", eludes to the Solar War.
